


The Care and Keeping of a Flerken Egg

by miraellie



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Not Canon Compliant, Sigyn is more or less an OC, who loves terrifying and dangerous things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 02:50:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18379424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miraellie/pseuds/miraellie
Summary: Loki gifts Sigyn with a Flerken egg. It goes better than it rightfully should, all things considered.





	The Care and Keeping of a Flerken Egg

In his defense, Loki hadn’t set out with the intention of buying a Flerken egg. No, he’d only meant to buy something _somewhat_ illegal and possibly dangerous.

As he stood in the gardens of Njord’s hall on Asgard, Loki considered the egg he’d hidden in the pocket of his coat. He had to entertain the possibility that he’d gone mad sometime between waking up yesterday morning and arriving on a backwater planet that had a thriving black market. It was the only possible explanation.

He heard a door slide open and recognized the quiet footsteps that followed.

Well. Madness wasn’t the only explanation.

Sigyn slid the door closed and put on her embroidered slippers. She smiled when she caught Loki’s gaze, and his damnable heart sped up in his chest. Her long black hair was pinned back, the ends reaching her thighs. She wore a blue cloak over her purple and green deel, and her breath fogged in the air.

Love was a sort of madness, he supposed.

“How long have you been out here in the cold?” she asked as she approached, snow crunching beneath her slippers. Her brown eyes fluttered down his form. “And in such a thin coat, at that.”

The slightly reprimanding tone in her voice made Loki smile. “Not long, I assure you,” he said. “It isn’t too cold.”

Sigyn rose an eyebrow but let the topic lie. Neither did she offer to bring him inside the hall. They had both long ago learned that they preferred to be some place private, where neither one of them had to worry about court rules and how Loki, a Prince of Asgard, held more power over her, the daughter of a deposed Vanir King. They could do away with pleasantries and formal talk and simply be themselves. They could be equals.

And when they were by themselves, Loki didn’t have to worry about making a wrong move and having Freyja feed parts of him to her cats. Freyja was a terrifying force to behold when she thought Sigyn had been wronged.

The thought of cats reminded Loki of the weight in his pocket. Now that the time had come, he was uncertain how to proceed. How did one announce that they’d bought a highly dangerous creature for the person they wished to court?

Worse, what if Sigyn refused him?

Sigyn tilted her head as she peered at Loki. He’d heard it said that her unblinking, intense stare unnerved people. It had never done so to him. Rather, Loki enjoyed it when she studied him, because whatever she found when she looked at him seemed to measure up.

“Is something wrong?” Sigyn asked. “It’s just, you’re very quiet. More than usual.”

“Ah,” Loki said, realizing he had been staring at her like a fool. “No, I’m sorry. It’s only--” He stopped, gathered his thoughts, and found himself wishing he could fall back on court protocol for this one interaction. It would not endear him to her, though, and so he doesn’t.

“Your birthday is soon, isn’t it?” Loki asked.

Sigyn blinked once before nodding slightly. “Yes. At the turn of the year.”

It had always seemed an odd birthday for her to have; when Loki thought of Sigyn, he thought of wildflowers and trees and grass and the comfortable air of a spring day. A winter birthday seemed to be at odds with her warm, if reserved, personality. Then again, he couldn’t deny there was something of a winter’s stillness in her bearing sometimes.

“Oh,” Sigyn said before Loki could continue, realization dawning on her face. “You got me a present, didn’t you?”

Her smile made his insides melt. Loki returned it with one of his own and, with a quiet laugh, said, “Yes. I hope you don’t think it foolish of me.”

“Shush and hand it over,” Sigyn said with a teasing grin, holding her hand out. “I’ll even close my eyes, if you like.”

She did so without waiting for his reply. Loki took a brief moment to commit her expression to memory--her face tilted up, as if she were waiting for a kiss--before he pulled the egg out of his pocket.

He’d had a speech all prepared. He’d start out saying that she was his best friend, and had been for centuries, despite the tensions between their Realms. How he’d come to treasure their time together, how he loved to spend his days with her in the royal library, studying magic and making each other laugh. How her immovable faith in him had been a balm to the hurt he carried when he could not find the same faith in his brother or father. And how that friendship had turned into something more for him. How he hoped that, maybe, he offered her the same miraculous feeling she gave him. He would have ended it by asking if she’d do him the honor of allowing him to court her.

All of that left Loki’s mind as soon as he presented her with the egg. He hated himself for it, but he wasn’t surprised. He had always been a coward.

Sigyn’s brow furrowed as she took the egg from him. “What’s this? It’s too small to be a dragon’s egg.”

“Ah,” Loki said, then cleared his throat and clasped his hands behind his back. “It’s... a Flerken egg.”

Silence met his words. Sigyn stared at him, then looked down to the egg, then back up at him. Loki was terrified to find he couldn’t read her expression.

In the past, he’d watched as a handful of men had presented Sigyn with presents. They had given her beautiful, intricate jewelry, which she had accepted with a quiet thank you before sending them on their way. The jewelry would end up being given to Freyja. Sigyn’s affections would end up being given to no one. It had always given him a vicious satisfaction to see the other suitors denied.

Loki would never begrudge Sigyn her happiness if she’d found it in someone else, but gods, how he hoped she found it in him. And he’d thought he’d known what sort of gift to buy her to announce his intentions. Sigyn, for all that she enjoyed pretty things, had once told him that gifts of that nature exposed how the men saw her: “Something pretty to decorate and parade around, as if I’m a trophy they’ve won. Who I am and what I look like at court is not truly me. I prefer there to be dirt under my nails and ink on my hands instead of rings.”

So, he’d kept that in mind as he searched the black market for a gift that was worthy of Sigyn’s attention. He had passed by carnivorous plants and books on dark, strange magicks. He had nearly given up hope when, at the outer edge of the market, had been a simple stall covered in odds and ends from all over the universe. The egg had caught his eye immediately because he couldn’t recognize it. When the woman behind the stall had told him what it was, Loki’s first thought was, “Perfect.”

Yes, he had definitely lost his mind.

Loki was about to take it back and apologize when Sigyn began laughing. It wasn’t a cruel, taunting laugh like the sort he often heard following him. It was a purely joyous laugh.

“Oh, Loki,” Sigyn said between breaths, “it’s wonderful.”

“I--ah.” She had rushed forward to hug him tightly. It was not the first time they’d ever hugged, but Loki was suddenly, painfully conscious of every place their bodies touched, and how comforting it was to be held by her. Her hair smelled of some Vanir flower he couldn’t name, but its sweet, gentle scent was a perfect fit. A moment too late, he returned the hug, his arms feeling stiff. “You’re welcome,” he said quietly.

“I can’t believe you even found this,” Sigyn said as she pulled away. Loki missed the warmth of her immediately. “But we should get it out of the cold. Come on.”

They both went inside Njord’s hall, leaving their shoes outside on the patio. Sigyn led him to her rooms while Loki inconspicuously looked around for any sign of Freyja.

Sigyn caught him looking and smiled. “Papa isn’t home.”

“It’s not your father I’m worried about,” Loki muttered as he saw Freyja’s two cats curled up before a fire. One of them gave him an intense stare, as if pondering how tasty he might be, before lying back down.

It was a relief to close the door to Sigyn’s rooms behind him. Her own cat, Runa, was lying on a large cushion. She regarded Loki without much interest. Sigyn’s sitting room was decorated in deep shades of blues and purples, and unlike Freyja’s dizzyling ornate furnishings, Sigyn’s were simple. A few paintings hung on the walls, mainly of gardens or forests. There were cushions she had embroidered herself with runes and flowers, but otherwise, the room only contained a fireplace and several bookcases for her ever growing collection.

Loki’s eye wandered to the door to her bedroom. Perhaps it held more personal touches. He’d never been inside before--had never _allowed_ himself inside.

Sigyn set the Flerken egg down beside the fire and, instead of sitting, laid down on her stomach and kicked her bare feet up. She rested her chin on her arms and eyed the egg with unabashed glee.

Loki found himself smiling as he joined her, electing to sit instead of lie down.

“What do you know about caring for a Flerken egg?” Sigyn asked.

Loki blinked.

“... Nothing.”

He hadn’t thought this through.

Sigyn only smiled. “Neither do I,” she said. “What conditions was its seller keeping it in?”

“Nothing special,” Loki said. “They merely had it out in the air. It was... the only one.”

“Hmm. Strange. I think Flerkens usually lay over a hundred eggs.” Her expression had softened. “I wonder how this one ended up being separated from the rest of its family?”

“I don’t know,” Loki said, watching her. Then, with sudden courage, he said, “I think--I thought of you when I saw it. It would have hatched and been alone, without any others of it kinds. Hunted and likely killed.”

He’d thought of Sigyn because she was always caring for someone or something. She seemed to attract lost, broken things, and what would be more lost than a Flerken kit on its own?

Sigyn was silent for a moment too long before she said, “Well, now it’ll be safe and taken care of. And,” she added as she sat up and crossed her legs, “maybe there’s a book somewhere about caring for a Flerken.”

“Perhaps,” Loki said quietly, “though it would be far too convenient, if so.”

“Hmm,” Sigyn said. “If a Flerken lays over a hundred eggs, then it obviously can’t be incubating them by lying on them all at once. So perhaps just a warm spot will do.”

He must have had a worried expression, for Sigyn smiled and bumped her shoulder against his. “Don’t worry, Loki. I think everything will be fine.”

How was it that she was able to make him smile with only a few words? And yet Loki found he still couldn’t ask for her hand. What if her feelings were only of friendship and nothing else? He didn’t think he could bear to watch her awkwardly explain that, while she was flattered, she only saw him as a dear friend and nothing more. Worse, what if asking ruined their friendship?

Even lost in his own thoughts, Loki didn’t miss how Sigyn had moved closer to him. He stiffened, partly from shock, as their shoulders touched and she laid her hand on his. Warmth spread through him from where they touched and his heart sped up. Two people touching hands was not a thing done lightly in Sigyn’s culture. It was something reserved for lovers.

“You know,” she said lightly, “this is rather extravagant for a birthday gift.” Her tone turned teasing. “A book would have been fine.”

Loki swallowed thickly before saying, “It was an impulsive purchase, I’ll admit.”

There was an awkward beat of silence before Sigyn said, “And here I was hoping you’d say you bought it as a courting gift.”

All he could do in response was laugh weakly and shake his head before saying, “It... was. It is. That is,” he managed, “it is a courting gift. For you.”

He hadn’t been aware that Sigyn was tense until he felt her relax beside him, and the idea that he could make her as nervous as she made him seemed impossible, and yet. It seemed so.

“Oh, good,” Sigyn said, putting a hand on his cheek and turning his face to hers. “Then you won’t mind if I do this.”

She kissed him then, gentle and sweet, and it was everything Loki had been secretly dreaming of and more. He couldn’t have dreamt up the softness of her deel and the feeling of her body underneath the fabric when he set his hand on her waist. Nor could he have imagined how her fingers would feel when they trailed away from his face and into his hair, sending a shiver down his spine. And Loki could not have ever thought of how something inside his soul seemed to settle, as if it had found some secret part of itself at last.

The kiss ended slowly. Loki kept his eyes closed as he pressed his forehead against Sigyn’s and simply breathed her in. Then, his voice hushed, he asked, “Is that a yes?”

He could feel her smile against his skin when she pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

Loki pulled away. “Sigyn, I want to do this properly.”

She tilted her head to the side, curious. “Isn’t the purpose of courting to see if two people get along well enough to be married? I already know my answer. And I know I’ve been wanting to marry you for years now. I’ve no need of gifts and walks in a garden to figure it out.”

He wasn’t certain which thought he was having more of an issue with: That he wouldn’t have to prove himself worthy of her hand, because she already found him so, or that she was asking him to set aside a way in which he could make her feel just as worthy in turn.

As if she could sense his conflict, Sigyn said, “If it means that much to you, then yes, you can court me.”

“I’ve no wish to do something you don’t want me to do,” Loki said.

Sigyn laughed, shaking her head. “Look at us! We’re being fools. You can court me, Loki, which will make you happy, and at the end, I get to marry you, which will make me happy. Just don’t keep me waiting too long.”

Something bright and weightless flooded through Loki, and it took him a second to recognize it as joy. Pure, miraculous joy. He placed a hand on her cheek, watching with something like awe as Sigyn leaned into it and gazed up at him. Though he was hesitant to call her expression loving for fear of jinxing this new and precious thing, Loki thought it safe to acknowledge it was something close to love.

This time, Loki kissed Sigyn, and it was just as perfect as it had been the first time. So perfect, in fact, that neither one of them noticed that the Flerken egg began to crack.


End file.
